Will Mother Nature Give Southern California A Break On Fires?

Is an angry Mother Nature about to give Southern California a break on the massive fires that have caused $1 billion in damage? Hopes are now guardedly high:

A massive aerial assault and a break in harsh winds helped firefighters make their first major progress against Southern California’s firestorm, raising evacuees’ hopes of returning home for good. But flames were still drawing perilously toward thousands of homes.

The hot, dry Santa Ana winds that have whipped the blazes into a destructive, indiscriminate fury since the weekend were expected to all but disappear Thursday.

There are two natural developments that can help firefighters: (1) The winds die down. (2) It rains. One now seems like it is in place. No sign yet of the second. Which suggests that, if the winds keep down, the fires can be slowly controlled, although less slowly than if it were raining. But the cooling will help:

That will certainly aid in firefighting efforts,” National Weather Service meteorologist Jamie Meier said.

The record high temperatures of recent days began succumbing to cooling sea breezes, and two fires that burned 21 homes in northern Los Angeles County were fully contained.

This is written from Ontario, CA, about a half hour away from Los Angeles and north of San Diego County. It was hot yesterday, with the air here a slight orange due to a high (and not healthy) particulate level.

Meanwhile, President George W. Bush is slated to visit California today — a visit that has as much to do with Southern California’s devastating present and future as it does with Mr. Bush’s past, as the Detroit Free Press notes:

Hurricane Katrina has many legacies for the Bush White House, none pleasant. One is the guarantee that, as soon as disaster strikes in the United States, President George W. Bush’s every move is closely scrutinized to gauge the speed and tone of his response.

This became clear again as the enormity of the wildfires sweeping across southern California since Sunday dawned on the nation.

Bush promised Wednesday that Washington “will do everything it can” to help southern Californians fearing the worst from wildfires blazing through canyons and neighborhoods for a fourth day.

“Americans all across this land care deeply about them,” the president said after a special cabinet meeting on the crisis. “We’re concerned about their safety. We’re concerned about their property.”

Officials throughout the Bush administration talked in blunt terms about offering more in this disaster than the feeble reaction that followed Katrina in September 2005.

The California fires are the first disaster since then that begins to approach the scale of Katrina. The White House was determined to convey a picture of a speedy and effective response, and seemed resigned to comparisons despite the different circumstances of the two crises — for instance the relative poverty of the Katrina victims and the hurricane’s more comprehensive reach.

“I think it’s inevitable,” said White House press secretary Dana Perino. “I understand that the comparison is going to be there, and so I’m not going to call it unfair.”

Bush has already pledged assistance but, in the end, he’ll like face some attack no matter what. If he didn’t come, he’d be criticized. When he does, he’ll be criticized for it being political due to the factors mentioned by the Free Press. And when he’s here — in a state where he has been hugely and increasingly unpopular — many Californians will look to see if he proposes substantive help or cooperation. That is highly likely since all signs so far point to him working with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (who is generally getting high marks for his performance in this crisis) closely and easily.

PERSONAL NOTE: Yours-truly heads back to San Diego tonight. Schools in most of San Diego remain closed today and parents are still encouraged to keep their kids inside.